- Coach hard and be demanding
- Praise great effort/intensity. Make it obvious what you are looking for.
- Consequences for poor effort and a lack of concentration
- No boundaries on loose balls in during drills or scrimmage setting
- Highlight videos of your team and others exemplifying the defensive intensity you are after
- We keep a plus/minus chart during practice to correlates to down/back sprints after practice. Great way to reward charges, getting on the floor for loose balls, and great effort as well as having collective accountability for a lack of effort or concentration.
I'm sure there are lots of other methods as well but these are some things to consider. To me, it starts with the coach and filters down. If you are quiet then you must be very demanding with your consequences. If you are louder and more demonstrative, I believe the team feeds off the energy of their coach.
Whatever the case, great intensity doesn't come natural to very many players so if you want it, you have to be prepared to get it out of them.
